Civil Disobedience Training

History of Mass Nonviolent Action

The use of nonviolence runs throughout
history. There have been numerous instances of people courageously
and nonviolently refusing cooperation with injustice. However,
the fusion of organized mass struggle and nonviolence is relatively
new. It originated largely with Mohandas Gandhi in 1906 at the
onset of the South African campaign for Indian rights. Later,
the Indian struggle for complete independence from the British
Empire included a number of spectacular nonviolent campaigns.
Perhaps the most notable was the year-long Salt campaign in which
100,000 Indians were jailed for deliberately violating the Salt
Laws.

The refusal to counter the violence of the repressive social system
with more violence is a tactic that has also been used by other
movements. The militant campaign for women's suffrage in Britain
included a variety of nonviolent tactics such as boycotts, noncooperation,
limited property destruction, civil disobedience, mass marches
and demonstrations, filling the jails, and disruption of public
ceremonies.

The Salvadoran people have used nonviolence as one powerful and
necessary element of their struggle. Particularly during the 1960s
and 70s, Christian based communities, labor unions, campesino
organizations, and student groups held occupations and sit-ins
at universities, government offices, and places of work such as
factories and haciendas.

There is rich tradition of nonviolent protest in this country
as well, including Harriet Tubman's underground railroad during
the civil war and Henry David Thoreau's refusal to pay war taxes.
Nonviolent civil disobedience was a critical factor in gaining
women the right to vote in the United States, as well.

The U.S. labor movement has also used nonviolence with striking
effectiveness in a number of instances, such as the Industrial
Workers of the World (IWW) free speech confrontations, the Congress
of Industrial Organizations (CIO) sitdown strikes from 1935-1937
in auto plants, and the UFW grape and lettuce boycotts.

Using mass nonviolent action, the civil rights movement changed
the face of the South. The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
initiated modern nonviolent action for civil rights with sit-ins
and a freedom ride in the 1940s. The successful Montgomery bus
boycott electrified the nation. Then, the early 1960s exploded
with nonviolent actions: sit-ins at lunch counters and other facilities,
organized by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC);
Freedom Rides to the South organized by CORE; the nonviolent battles
against segregation in Birmingham, Alabama, by the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference (SCLC); and the 1963 March on Washington,
which drew 250,000 participants.

Opponents of the Vietnam War employed the use of draft card burnings,
draft file destruction, mass de-. monstrations (such as the 500,000
who turned out in 1969 in Washington, D.C.), sit-ins, blocking
induction centers, draft and tax resistance, and the historic
1971 May Day traffic blocking in Washington, D.C. in which 13,000
people were arrested.

Since the mid-70s, we have seen increasing nonviolent activity
against the nuclear arms race and nuclear power industry. Nonviolent
civil disobedience actions have taken place at dozens of nuclear
weapons research installations, storage areas, missile silos,
test sites, military bases, corporate and government offices and
nuclear power plants. In the late 1970s mass civil disobedience
actions took place at nuclear power plants from Seabrook, New
Hampshire to the Diablo Canyon reactor in California and most
states in between in this country and in other countries around
the world. In 1982, 1750 people were arrested at the U.N. missions
of the five major nuclear powers. Mass actions took place at the
Livermore Laboratories in California and SAC bases in the midwest.
In the late 80s a series of actions took place at the Nevada test
site. International disarmament actions changed world opinion
about nuclear weapons.

In 1980 women who were concerned with the destruction of the Earth
and who were interested in exploring the connections between feminism
and nonviolence were coming together. In November of 1980 and
1981 the Women's Pentagon Actions, where hundreds of women came
together to challenge patriarchy and militarism, took place. A
movement grew that found ways to use direct action to put pressure
on the military establishment and to show positive examples of
life-affirming ways to live together. This movement spawned women's
peace camps at military bases around the world from Greenham Common,
England to Puget Sound Peace Camp in Washington state, with camps
in Japan and Italy among others.

The anti-apartheid movement in the 80s has built upon the powerful
and empowering use of civil disobedience by the civil rights movement
in the 60s. In November of 1984, a campaign began that involved
daily civil disobedience in front of the South African Embassy.
People, including members of Congress, national labor and religious
leaders, celebrities, students, community leaders, teachers, and
others, risked arrest every weekday for over a year. In the end
over 3,100 people were arrested protesting apartheid and U.S.
corporate and government support. At the same time, support actions
for this campaign were held in 26 major Cities, resulting in an
additional 5,000 arrests.

We also saw civil disobedience being incorporated as a key tactic
in the movement against intervention in Central America. Beginning
in 1983, national actions at the White House and State Department
as well as local actions began to spread. In November 1984, the
Pledge of Resistance was formed. Since then, over 5,000 people
have been arrested at military installations, congressional offices,
federal buildings, and CIA offices. Many people have also broken
the law by providing sanctuary for Central American refugees and
through the Lenten Witness, major denomination representatives
have participated in weekly nonviolent civil disobedience actions
at the Capitol.

Student activists have incorporated civil disobedience in both
their anti-apartheid and Central America work. Divestment became
the campus slogan of the 80s. Students built shantytowns and staged
sit-ins at Administrator's offices. Hundreds have been arrested
resulting in the divestment of over 130 campuses and the subsequent
withdrawal of over $4 billion from the South African economy.
Central America student activists have carried out campaigns to
protest CIA recruitment on campuses. Again, hundreds of students
across the country have been arrested in this effort.

Nonviolent direct action has been an integral part of the renewed
activism in the lesbian and gay community since 1987, when ACT
UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) was formed. ACT UP
and other groups have organized hundreds of civil disobedience
actions across the country, focusing not only on AIDS but on the
increasing climate of homophobia and attacks on lesbians and gay
men. On October 13, 1987, the Supreme Court was the site of the
first national lesbian and gay civil disobedience action, where
nearly 600 people were arrested protesting the decision in Hardwick
vs. Bowers, which upheld sodomy laws. This was the largest mass
arrest in D.C. since 1971.

Political Analysis

Power itself is not derived through violence, though in governmental
form it is usually violent in nature. Governmental power is often
maintained through oppression and the tacit compliance of the
majority of the governed. Any significant withdrawal of that compliance
will restrict or dissolve governmental control. Apathy in the
face of injustice is a form of violence. Struggle and conflict
are often necessary to correct injustice.

Our struggle is not easy, and we must not think of nonviolence
as a "safe" way to fight oppression. The strength of
nonviolence comes from our willingness to take personal risk without
threatening other people.

It is essential that we separate the individual from the role
she/he plays. The "enemy" is the system that casts people
in oppressive roles.